So Romantic It Hurts: C Duncan Talks 'It's Only A Love Song'
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Written by Jeremy Blackmore
Photo: Harrison Reid
C Duncan is an incurable romantic, which partly explains why the Scottish singer-songwriter is also a devotee of lush, multi-layered arrangements with swooning strings, classicist melodies and dreamy harmonies. In his world, the more lavish and grand things get, the better.
“I love the idea of something being so romantic that it almost hurts,” he says. “I do think there is a place for romantic music — Burt Bacharach-style songs that you just don’t hear in the charts, or anywhere, now. Nobody’s really writing them.”
Nobody except him, maybe. This old school approach to record-making has been fully embraced on his fifth album ‘It’s Only A Love Song’, which arrives 10 years after his debut ‘Architect’ was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Reflecting back a sentiment that would chime with Paul McCartney, one of its many influences and someone who once sang in defence of Silly Love Songs, it’s as concerned with affairs of the heart as it is with the mechanics of Duncan’s own tastes.
“You spend so much of your life trying to do things you think are cool,” he says. “Particularly in the music world. To stay relevant, there has to be some sort of coolness to you. But I think I’ve got to that age where I just can’t be bothered with that anymore. I just want to do what I want to do. I listen to a lot of very romantic music, a lot of classical music, Mahler, Messiaen, these big, lush scores. I thought, ‘Yeah, I want to try this.’”
The title track, which serves as the album’s opener, is itself a love song about love songs. It begins with an aching piano overture before a chorus of harmonies transports the listener back to the classics of the early 1970s. At the same time, Duncan confronts what he sees as the paradox inherent in the genre. “It’s only a love song,” he sings. “But it ain’t half as good as you.”
“I love love songs, but I do realise how completely pointless they are,” he reflects. “They don't actually mean anything because it doesn’t make anyone’s life any better. It’s purely a romantic gesture as opposed to something you could give someone. I’ve had experience of writing love songs for other people, obviously my partner, and they always prefer different songs on the record. But then someone else will take that song and it will mean something to them.”
He recalls fans telling him they had used The Wedding Song from 2022’s ‘Alluvium’ – a track he wrote for his brother’s marriage – at their wedding. “That’s what a love song is about,” he says. “It’s not necessarily for the person it was written for. I wanted to play around with that. It’s a love song. It’s a thing. It’s not the actual person.”
While making the LP, Duncan drew rich inspiration from Leonard Bernstein, particularly his compositions for West Side Story, but he is less clear how the 1970s sound seeped into the album, although he was quick to lean into it. In addition to McCartney, he cites The Carpenters, Scott Walker and Harry Nilsson as touchstones. “After I recorded the first track I thought, ‘This has got a definite ‘70s sound so let’s play with that,” he says. “It wasn’t really intentional. I think it’s the style of music, it is very romantic, it is very over the top, it works with that kind of production.”
Second track Lucky, dedicated to Duncan’s husband, has a nod to John Barry’s score for the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in particular the song We Have All The Time In The World, which was performed by Louis Armstrong. “I love all that stuff,” he says. “I think it’s the simplicity of the structure of those songs as well. Quite often with my music it goes off on some mad tangent, but with a couple of the songs on the record I thought, ‘How would Louis Armstrong [do this]?’
“We were watching one of the new Bond films where they hark back to that soundtrack and that whole Mediterranean vibe and it’s all very breezy. I did want to write a song for my partner. But, again, it’s one of those things. He really likes it, but I don't think it’s his favourite on the album. So, I think, ‘Oh, well, someone else can have it, then.’”
Duncan’s love of French cinema and symbolist poetry also informed the record. A longtime fan of New Wave director Jacques Demy, he counts Michel Legrand, who assembled many extravagant scores for Demy’s films, as one of his favourite composers. These cinematic influences can be heard, for example, in the harpsichord of Triste Clair de Lune, a song where the moon loses a part of itself as it floats to Earth, the exquisite light being found by humans, while the stars lament its loss.
“You can listen to Michel Legrand’s music, and you can imagine where you are,” Duncan says. “It doesn’t have to go with a Demy film, or any other film. Your imagination goes wild just because of the sounds. It’s hyper romantic, as well. Then, yes, Leconte and Verlaine. I just love all that. It’s so flowery. There are so many words used just to say something really simple. I like that. It’s quite maximalist.”
Fittingly, the album is arranged and sequenced as a song suite with a logical lyrical progression that arose naturally from a new way of writing, focusing initially on words rather than music. “I trained as a composer [at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland], so that’s very much the starting point for me,” he explains.
“But with this record, lyrics definitely played a much larger part to begin with. It was fun because it pushed me. It made me think differently about it. In the past, I would always think sonically. It’s not a conceptual album in any way but it’s the first time I’d sat down and thought, actually, lyrically, how do these go together?”
‘It’s Only A Love Song’ is the second album Duncan has recorded in his new home studio in the picturesque Scottish town of Helensburgh on the north side of the Firth of Clyde. As well as the larger facilities his home set-up provides, he also draws inspiration from the beautiful local environment and daily coastal walks with his partner and their dogs.
“With my style of music, because it’s so layered, I need the time and the space to think,” he says. “My previous albums I recorded in my flat in Glasgow where I had a very, very small studio. It was a kind of box room, so I couldn’t have a piano, any of this kind of stuff. But we’ve got a bit more space now, a baby grand I can record with. It makes the whole thing more inspiring because you’re not constantly taking out instruments and putting them away, trying to make space so you can move around.”
While Duncan studied viola, he enlisted the help of his parents, both classical musicians who also live in Helensburgh, to play strings on the new album. It’s the second musical adventure for the Duncan family after they accompanied him on his last tour. “On the last record I played all the viola parts myself,” he says.
“But I am a typical viola player. I can play low and slow, and that’s about it. I wouldn’t even dream of doing anything high up. So, I thought I’d see if my parents wanted to do it. They’re both classically trained, worked in orchestras, and they’re retired. They’ve got a bit more time, and they just love playing. They recorded all the string parts, which was really good fun.”
Duncan will soon embark on an 11 date UK tour, beginning on January 28 with a performance at Saint Luke’s in Glasgow. He will play the first half of the tour solo, while later dates will feature him as part of a trio with a Celtic harpist and a bassist, with tracks drawn from across his career.
It’s Only A Love Song is out now on Bella Union.
C Duncan Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue January 28 2025 - GLASGOW St Luke's
Thu January 30 2025 - READING South Street Arts Centre
Fri January 31 2025 - SOUTHAMPTON Heartbreakers
Sat February 01 2025 - SHEFFIELD Hallamshire Hotel
Sun February 02 2025 - STOCKTON Georgian Theatre
Wed February 19 2025 - MANCHESTER Gulliver's
Thu February 20 2025 - NOTTINGHAM Bodega Social Club
Fri February 21 2025 - BRISTOL Bristol Folk House
Sun February 23 2025 - OXFORD Jericho Tavern
Mon February 24 2025 - LONDON Lexington
Tue February 25 2025 - BRIGHTON Komedia Studio
Wed February 26 2025 - LEEDS Oporto
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